Wells Fargo Merchant Services Review

February 28, 2014

Quick details of the company
Financial Services company Wells Fargo has been in business since 1852, but its payment processing services began in 1971 with the partnership with First Data. Wells Fargo has more than 10,000 locations in the U.S. while First Data works with merchants in around 36 countries.

Contracts with both Wells Fargo and First Data last around the same amount of time with three and four years, respectively. For Wells Fargo, you must submit a proposal to not continue with the company after three years if you don’t want the company to auto-renew your contract for another year.

As for overall grade, Wells Fargo received an average B according to the Better Business Bureau. The only factor that lowered the company’s score was government action. The other few factors helped the company to maintain a B average.Short summary of the product offering
Wells Fargo, like many other payment processors, accepts all four major credit cards in-store, online, and on mobile devices. In addition, the company will accept transactions if your customers use JCB and Diners cards.

One of the benefits of having Wells Fargo as your payment processor is that your money will get deposited into your account the day after the transaction instead of the industry standard 48 hours.

Keep in mind, though, that if suspicious activity arises, meaning strange charges occur or if there are chargebacks, your account could get temporarily frozen or suspended from either Wells Fargo or its partner First Data. Another point to note is that you should have a phone near you at all times because Wells Fargo seems to prefer if you call them with questions.Details of Product offering

Fees
Wells Fargo is quite vague on its monthly and yearly fees. The company does provide a sample merchant statement with what each section means, so you do have the gist of what the company is going to charge. For instance, chargebacks/reversals, transaction-based and/or fixed amounts for specific card processing services, and interchange charges will show up on your statement. The amount, however, depends on what business you’re conducting.

Plus, you might want to rethink if you want to cancel or go into an agreement with Wells Fargo. Its high $500 cancellation fee is pricey, and it only gets higher if you have a business earning more than $1 million.

For Wells Fargo’s payment gateway First Data, there’s a format for costs each month, depending on if your company is online, in-store, or mobile. So let’s break it down.

Online

$19.95 gateway fee

` ` $10/month for customer service

$0.25/transaction charges

2.19% discount rate or $15, whichever is greater

In-store

$229 for the terminal and printer

$10/month for customer service

$0.30/transaction

1.59% discount rate or $25, whichever is greater

Mobile

$799 for the new terminal

$19.99 monthly fees

$10/month for customer service

$0.40/transaction fee

1.59% discount rate

Payment gateways
Wells Fargo goes hand in hand with payment gateway First Data. First Data is a fairly large payment gateway and covers many of the large payment processing companies. But keep in mind that you’ll be dealing with another company, additional fees, and different security measures. Look into and ask for all the details from each before you sign a contract with both of them.

Mobile capabilities
The great thing about Wells Fargo is that it can support mobile capabilities for any size company. Terminals and mobile card readers begin the transaction process for any credit and debit cards. Plus, it saves on paper by providing your customers with electronic receipts. In addition, the data is automatically encrypted once the card is swiped, and of course, everything complies with PCI regulations. Fraud is not of concern with security and risk management services in play.

eCommerce platform support
If you’re conducting business online, you’re in luck. Wells Fargo’s SecureSource WebPayment Account accepts all major credit cards, completes credit card payments the same day of the purchase, and provides AVS, CVV2, CID, and CVC2 fraud and security protections. An API is available for SecureSource to send secure transactions.

Wells Fargo is pretty flexible, letting you choose from Authorize.Net, SecureNet Payment Systems, PayFlow Gateway, or your current online payment gateway for transactions. But if you choose your own, you need to contact Wells Fargo to let them know who your current gateway provider is.

Security/privacy
Wells Fargo adheres to PCI compliance and provides many security features for online payments. When any data is entered using Wells Fargo’s devices, it is automatically encrypted. But remember that Wells Fargo does not have its own payment gateway outside of online businesses, so your data could be decrypted when moving from Wells Fargo to a third party and back.

Customer Service
Wells Fargo is not very advanced in the customer service department. There are multiple phone numbers to call across the site, but most of the email addresses to contact are for phishing and email scams rather than general inquiries. There’s not a live chat available on the website or other capabilities. They do have a large fan base on their Twitter and Facebook accounts, but for the company’s customer service account on Twitter, it seems to be more of a love fest for the company. There are so many shout outs that say “Thanks for the shout-out and the kind words” and “Thanks for the love & recognition.” You can scroll down, but it doesn’t look like they’re solving anyone’s problem.

The bottom line

Quick summary
Wells Fargo offers a wide selection of opportunities for many businesses. But the company is vague on pricing because it’s highly dependent on what business you’re conducting. The good thing about the company is that it has high security measures in place to protect you and your customer’s data; however, it does use third party services, including First Data, so find out what the security measures are across every channel that important data crosses.

Wells Fargo provides companies mobile and portable terminals to process transactions anywhere, and customer service is available 24/7. Just make sure to keep a phone by you at all times if a problem occurs because calling appears to be their preferred method of solving problems.

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